improving body image

In our society obsessed with fast food, dieting and body image, body dissatisfaction and dieting are common. These lead to unhealthy eating behaviors, which further become eating disorders. These are very dangerous to one’s health.

A common eating disorder afflicting young people nowadays is anorexia nervosa. Almost everyone can suffer from this eating disorder, but this mostly affects young women. 95% of anorexia sufferers are females. Athletes, especially swimmers, dancers, and gymnasts are also at greater risk of having the disease, as well as girls who are into dancing, modeling, or gymnastics, those with heavy workloads, those people who have suffered trauma in the past like child abuse or sexual abuse, and those who are highly intelligent/achievers and perfectionists. Girls with anorexia usually begin having the disease during puberty, and during
times of transitions such as moving schools.

Anorexia is an eating disorder which is characterized by starvation and excessive exercise. Girls with anorexia are called anorexic. The disease alters a person’s body image so much that one does not see the truth about oneself when she looks in a mirror. Girls with anorexia strive to lose more weight even though they are not even overweight because they believe that there is no such
thing as being “too thin”. Girls with anorexia do this because they view weight gain as failure.

Clinically, girls with anorexia are diagnosed to have this disease if they refuse to maintain body weight at or above a minimally normal weight for age and height, if they maintain excessive physical activity – some do not stop until they are about to faint, if they have intense fear of becoming fat although they are in fact thin, and if they have distorted body image, and have actually
stopped menstruating for at least three consecutive cycles.

Girls with anorexia often are irrationally afraid of gaining weight and have a distorted body image. Girls with anorexia stay away from food and eat very little which is not enough to keep their bodies working properly. Often, girls with anorexia feel fat even when in reality they look emaciated. They starve themselves, binge-eat then purge, and over- exercise. Low self-esteem is often
seen in girls with anorexia.

Girls with anorexia face a gamut of health problems such as dizziness, low blood pressure, and fainting spells. Loss of hair can also be observed, as well as dry skin, dehydration, and constipation. Girls with anorexia usually have mild to moderate depression because of inadequate food-energy intake. Growth can also be affected, as well as the menstrual cycle because of low estrogen levels. Girls with anorexia may also suffer from osteoporosis.

There are girls with anorexia who also incorporate bulimic behaviors into their illness. They binge-eat and purge themselves of food.

Girls with anorexia are very difficult to treat. They are often either emphatically denying that they are ill or paradoxically, accepting that they have anorexia. Girls with anorexia usually do not see anything wrong with their eating disorder, viewing it with rose-colored glasses, and believing it is a “lifestyle choice". Girls with anorexia share tips and tricks in pro ana websites and discussion groups where they come together and talk to one another. Successful treatment of girls with anorexia is possible but it is a long-term endeavor, and the possibility of relapse is big. 20% of girls with anorexia eventually die of heat failure or low potassium levels.